It is an established article of the Mussulman creed, that the actions of mankind are all weighed in a vast unerring balance, and the future condition of the agents determined according to the preponderance of evil or good. This fiction, which seems to have been borrowed from the Jews, had probably its origin in the figurative language of Scripture. Thus, Psalm lxii, 9: “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity”; and in Daniel, the sentence against the King of Babylon, inscribed on the wall, “Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.” PAGE 268. _Balkis_ This was the Arabian name of the Queen of Sheba, who went from the south to hear the wisdom and admire the glory of Solomon. The Koran represents her as a worshipper of fire. Solomon is said not only to have entertained her with the greatest magnificence, but also to have raised her to his bed and his throne.--_Al Koran_, ch. xxvii, and SALE’S notes. D’HERBELOT, p. 182. PAGE 270. _The pavement, strewed over with saffron_ There are several circumstances in the Story of the Third Calender, that resemble those here mentioned; particularly a pavement strewed with saffron, and the burning of ambergris and aloes-wood. PAGE 271. _Ouranbad_ This monster is represented as a fierce-flying hydra, and belongs to the same class with the _rakshe_, whose ordinary food was serpents and dragons; the _soham_, which had the head of a horse, with four eyes, and the body of a flame-coloured dragon; the _syl_, a basilisk with a face resembling the human, but so tremendous that no mortal could bear to behold it; the _ejder_, and others. See these respective titles in RICHARDSON’S _Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary_. PAGE 272. _Creatures of clay_ Nothing could have been more appositely imagined than this compellation. Eblis, according to Arabian mythology, had suffered a degradation from his primeval rank, and was consigned to these regions, for having refused to worship Adam in obedience to the supreme command; alleging, in justification of his refusal, that himself had been formed of ethereal fire, whilst Adam was only a creature of clay.--_Al Koran_, c. lv, etc. PAGE 272. _... the fortress of Aherman_ In the mythology of the Easterns, Aherman was accounted _the Demon of Discord_. The ancient Persian romances abound in descriptions of this fortress, in which the inferior demons assemble, to receive the behests of their prince; and from whom they proceed to exercise their malice in every part of the world.--D’HERBELOT, p. 71. PAGE 272. _... the halls of Argenk_